What is Chinglish in the eyes of foreigners?

Thank you for your interest in SmartStudy.

Hello, students: In various English learning forums, you can often see articles about Chinglish, but they are usually written by China people. But I read a long article about Chinglish, which was written by an American, and it was very interesting. The title of this long article is Chinglish 2 English (from Chinglish to Standard English), written by Chuck aronson, an American foreign teacher in Zhejiang University. The content is all kinds of Chinglish sentences that Chuck heard and saw during his five-year teaching in China.

For example, when Chuck came to China for the first time and got off the plane, Mr. Chen, who was in charge of receiving him, said: You just arrived, let's have some dinner. We'd like to order tofu from China, jiaozi and China. Do you think it's okay? Chuck had never heard of these two things before, but out of curiosity, he said yes. As a result, the dishes were served with wonton (jiaozi, from Italy) and tofu (tofu, from Japan). Chuck thought at that time that these two things have long been common internationally (wonton and tofu). Why do people in China use this unusual expression? After Chuck knew Mr. Chen, he asked him, why don't you say wonton and tofu? Surprised, Mr. Chen quickly explained that I really don't know these two words, and they are not in our English-Chinese dictionary.

So Chuck began to realize that there must be something wrong with China's English teachers, English textbooks and even English dictionaries, otherwise this would not have happened. During Chuck's five years teaching in China, he collected a large number of Chinglish idioms, selected a group of the most common ones and compiled them into the long article mentioned above.

Here are these Chinglish expressions, in which the first part of each line is Chinese expression, the second part is Chinglish expression and the third part is standard English expression.

① Welcome to ... ② Welcome to ... ③ Welcome to. ...

1 Always remember you 2 Always remember you 3 Always remember you (no one can live forever)

I wish you a happy life ... ② I wish you a ... ③ I wish you a pleasant journey. ...

1 2 for you, 3 for you.

I like it ... I like it very much ... I like it very much.

(1) Yellow hair (2) Yellow hair (3) Blonde hair/blonde hair (there is no such thing as yellow hair in westerners).

① Toilet ② Toilet ③ Men's/Women's Toilet/Lounge

What a pity! What a pity!

① Pants ② Pants ③ Pants/slacks/jeans

① Repair ② Repair ③ Repair/repair

① Entrance ② Approach ③ Entrance

① Quit ② Exit ③ Quit (exit means madness in spoken language)

① Diligence ② Diligence ③ Hard work/diligence/consideration

① Should ② Should ③ Must/Should.

① Hotpot ② Hotpot ③ Hotpot

① Building ② Building ③ Center/Square

① average ② average ③ average/average/ok/not too bad/ok (westerners seldom use average).

① Delicious ③ Good/good-looking/delicious/appetizing (delicious is abused in China).

Try your best, try your best, try/be strict (try means try your best).

① Famous ② Famous ③ Famous/Famous/Legendary/Popular (Famous is abused in China).

① Funny ② Humor ③ Funny/witty/interesting/entertaining.

① Cheating ② Cheating ③ Playing tricks/joking/cheating/cheating/extortion.

① Door ② Door ③ Door

How do you spell it? 2 how to spell it? ③ How to spell it?

Bye, bye, bye, bye, bye, bye, bye, bye, bye, bye.

①Play②Play③go/do(Play is abused in China).

① Noodles ② Noodles ③ Pasta (Noodles are a bit childish)

It is said that I heard/read/was detained.

Wait, wait, wait, wait.

① Up to now ② Up to now ③ Recently/Recently/Thursday.

① Farmers ② Farmers ③ Farmers

① Publicity ② Publicity ③ Information

Attachment: 12 Typical English Chinese errors.

1. This price suits me very well.

Error: The price suits me very well.

The price is right.

Tip: Appropriate (appropriate, matching) is the most common usage that appears in a negative form on notices or notices. For example, the following programs are not suitable for children to watch. The following programs are not suitable for children. It would be more appropriate to use the latter statement.

2. What do you do?

What is your job?

Are you working now?

What do you do?

Hint: Is there anything wrong with your work? Yes, because if the person you are talking to has just lost his job, such a direct question will make the other person lose face, so you have to ask: Are you currently at work? Are you working now? Then you ask: Where do you work now? Where do you work these days? Or what do you do? What line of work do you do?

3. How do you say it in English?

Wrong: What do you mean?

How do you say this in English?

Tip: How to say is one of the most rampant Chinglish in China, and it is by no means an authentic English expression. The same sentence is: how do you spell this word? How do you spell that, please How to pronounce this word, please? How to pronounce this word?

I have something to do tomorrow.

I have something to do tomorrow.

I will be busy all day tomorrow.

Tip: I have something to do, which means you are busy, which is also completely Chinese. Because we have things to do all the time, lying there and sleeping is also one thing. So you can say that I am busy and can't leave: I am busy. There are other expressions: I can't go at that time. I'd love to, but I can't. I have to stay at home.

I have no English name.

I have no English name.

I have no English name.

Tip: Many people make such mistakes when speaking English. From a grammatical point of view, it may be a lack of grammatical skills, because have is a notional verb here, not a meaningless auxiliary verb in the present perfect tense. Therefore, this sentence should be changed from a positive sentence to a negative sentence with an auxiliary verb. Understanding truth is one thing, habit is another, please say a few more words: I have no money; I have no money. I have no brothers or sisters; I have no brothers or sisters. I don't have a car. I don't have a car.

I don't think I can do it.

I don't think I can.

I don't think I can do it.

Tip: When Chinese says "I don't think I can do it", English always says "I don't think I can do it". If you speak similar English sentences in the future, you will get used to English expression habits as long as you pay attention.

7. I'm not good at dancing either.

I can't dance well either.

I'm not very good at dancing.

Tip: when we say that we are not good at doing something, we usually use not good at something. In English, English thinking even goes straight to the point: I am not a good dancer.

8. What time is it?

What time is it now?

may I ask you the time?

Hint: What time is it? It is a sentence translated directly from Chinese. There is no need to say now when speaking English, because you can't ask what time it was yesterday or what time it will be tomorrow. So the English idiom is: What time is it, please? There is another saying: How is our time? This sentence is particularly appropriate in the case of time constraints.

9. My English is terrible.

My English is poor.

Positive: I'm not 100% fluent, but at least I'm making progress.

Tip: Someone joked that the English that all China people are good at is: My English is poor. When foreigners encounter their poor foreign language, they will say: I still have problems to worry about, but I am getting better.

10. Would you like to come to our party?

Would you like to join our party on Friday?

Would you like to come to our party on Friday night?

Tip: join often refers to joining a club or association, such as joining a fitness club; Join communist party. In fact, the verb often used with party is come or go. Like going to a wild party or a Christmas party.

1 1. I have no experience.

I have no experience.

I don't know much about that.

Tip: It sounds strange that I have no experience, because all you have to do is say that I don't know much about it, or I'm not good at it. I'm not an expert in this field.

12.- Are you going home this Spring Festival?

Yes, I will go back.

Will you go home for the Spring Festival?

Wrong:-Of course!

Positive:-Of course. /sure.

Tip: Native English speakers use course much less frequently than students in China, and only say yes when answering some well-known questions. Because of course, the implied sentence behind it is "of course I know! Am I a fool? " Therefore, it is certainly provocative. It is much better to use affirmation or affirmation in conversation. At the same time, it is certainly not provocative. Under normal circumstances, the moderate statement is definitely not.

For details, please consult Zhike.com official website for reference/